This is Simmons' jailhouse daydream: When he walks out of jail, he'll go on a book tour. He will do the talk-show circuit. He says he has job offers to work in computers. He'll go down to Florida and spend the holidays with his mom. Oh, he'll still have to file his civil suits against the New Jersey and Suffolk authorities for things like allegedly not reading him his Miranda rights and prescribing sleeping pills that allegedly made him impotent. But when all that money comes in, he plans to relax.

"After my lawsuits, I'll probably go to the Caribbean," he says. "I like it down there."

The way Steve Simmons sees it, he's got his whole life ahead of him.

He says he thinks Sam does, too. Well, part of his life. The boy will be eligible for parole after 59 yearswhen he's 76 years old. Simmons claims that Sam is "taking it very well for someone who's doing life." Sam plans to get his GED, says Simmons, and he wants to take college courses and maybe teach.

"He didn't think anyone could love him no matter what he did," says Simmons. "I stayed with him from the beginning to the end."